1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for creating a virtual environment for experiencing a virtual feeling of a three dimensional space. The present invention also relates to a record medium having recorded thereon a computer readable program for making a computer to execute procedure for creating a virtual environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, there have been proposed various methods of creating a three dimensional virtual space by means of a computer graphics. For instance, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication Kokai Hei 9-187038, there is disclosed a virtual space creating method, in which an object is picked-up by an image picking-up means at different picking-up positions such that a part of the object is picked-up in a duplicated manner to obtain a plurality of images, parameters are calculated in accordance with respective picking-up positions as well as respective positions of an imaging lens, distance distributions of the object are derived by said plurality of images and parameters, and reconstructing a three dimensional model of the object by successively organizing said distance distributions and images by means of said parameters.
In Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication Kokai Hei 9-244522, there is disclosed a three dimensional space creating method, in which three dimensional geometric data of an architecture is formed from plan views of the architecture by means of a separate modeling software, the thus obtained three dimensional geometric data is placed on a cylindrical space which represents a surrounding landscape, image mapping data is produced by denoting mappings between vertices in the three dimensional geometric data and corresponding characteristic points on photographs of an inside of the architecture and panoramic photographs of the landscape taken from terraces, and these three dimensional geometric data and image mapping data are stored as virtual space creating data. Upon creating the virtual three dimensional space, the three dimensional geometric data is projected on the image, and at the same time image information denoted by the image mapping data is displayed by texture mapping.
In the virtual space creating method described in the above mentioned Kokai Hei 9-187038, in order to derive the distance distributions of the object, for each of a plurality of images obtained by picking-up the object, it is necessary to detect a pick-up position and a lens position of the picking-up means. This necessitates rather cumbersome and time-consuming work. Furthermore, in this method, the three dimensional data may be taken into the computer with the aid of rather expensive distance measuring device such as a range finder, and therefore a cost of a whole system is liable to increase.
In the virtual space creating method described in the above Kokai Hei 9-244522, it is necessary to generate the three dimensional data of the architecture by means of plan views of the architecture and separate three dimensional modeling software. This modeling work is cumbersome and a user is subjected to a lot of work and time.
A first object of the present invention is to provide a method of creating a virtual environment in a simple manner.
A second object of the invention is to provide a virtual environment creating apparatus, in which the above mentioned virtual environment creating method can be carried out by means of a simple and less expensive structure.
Further, a third object of the present invention is to provide a record medium having recorded thereon a computer readable program which is to make a computer to execute procedure for creating a virtual environment in a simple manner.
A fourth object of the invention is to provide a computer data signal embodied in a carrier wave, wherein said computer data signal is constructed by computer readable program codes for producing a virtual environment from a panoramic image of an inside of an architecture or room in a simple manner.
According to the invention for attaining the above mentioned first object, a method of creating a virtual environment comprises:
a step of arranging a panoramic image of an inside of a room picked-up from a single view point on a cylindrical body in a virtual space such that information about an angle of view of the relevant panoramic image is reflected;
a step of arranging a ceiling plane and a floor plane of said room in said virtual space such that the ceiling plane and floor place are brought into contact with an upper plane and a lower plane, respectively of said cylindrical body;
a step of deriving a radius (r) of the cylindrical body from a circumferencial length of said cylindrical body corresponding to a length (L) of said panoramic image;
a step of deriving a height (H) of said panoramic image; a step of setting markers (Axe2x80x2, Bxe2x80x2) on the panoramic image, said markers corresponding to vertices (A, B) of a plurality of posts defining a shape of said virtual space, at said vertices the respective posts being brought into contact with the ceiling plane and floor plane, respectively on the virtual space;
a step of deriving heights (a, b) of said markers on the panoramic image; and
a step of deriving distances (Z) from a virtual view point (O) set in the virtual space to said posts (A-B line) and a height (w) of said virtual view point (O) from said radius (r) of the cylindrical body, said height (H) of the panoramic image and said heights (a, b) of the markers on the panoramic image;
wherein a virtual environment model of the inside of said room is created in accordance with said panoramic image.
In an embodiment of the virtual environment creating method according to the invention, in order to correct a variation in the height of view points during the production of the panoramic image, information about a height of another virtual view point in a direction of a line of sight which situates, viewed in a rotational direction on a horizontal plane, between lines of sight which have been used for deriving the heights of virtual view points is derived by an interpolation from the previously derived heights of the virtual view points.
In another preferable embodiment of the virtual environment creating method according to the invention, in order to correct a variation in a horizontal position of view points during the formation of the panoramic image, a position of a virtual view point having a viewing direction corresponding to a beam in the above mentioned virtual environment model created from the panoramic image is shifted in the horizontal plane on which said virtual view point is existent such that the beam is corrected to be straight in the virtual space.
In an embodiment of the method according to the invention, in order to utilize data of the panoramic image as texture information without preparing separate texture information, image information at a position of the panoramic image is texture-mapped as surface information onto a corresponding position of the virtual environment model constructed from the panoramic image.
According to the invention, a method of creating a virtual environment comprises:
a step of arranging a panoramic image of an inside of a room picked-up from a single view point on a cylindrical body in a virtual space such that information about an angle of view of the relevant panoramic image is reflected;
a step of arranging at least one of a ceiling plane and a floor plane of said room on said virtual space such that at least one of the ceiling plane and floor place is brought into contact with at least one of an upper plane and a lower plane of said cylindrical body;
a step of deriving a radius (r), a circumferencial length (L) and a height (H) of the cylindrical body as well as an angle of view (xcex8) at which said panoramic image is picked-up;
a step of setting, on the panoramic image, markers corresponding to vertices (A, B) of at least one post defining a shape of the virtual space, at said vertices the post being brought into contact with the ceiling plane and floor plane, respectively of the virtual space;
a step of deriving heights (a, b) of said markers on the panoramic image; and
a step of setting a position of the view point (H/2) of said panoramic image, and deriving a distance (Zp) from a virtual view point (O) in the virtual space to said post (A-B line) and a height (w) of said virtual view point (O) as well as a height (h) of said room in the virtual space from said position of the view point (H/2), said radius (r) of the cylindrical body and said heights (a, b) of said markers on the panoramic image;
wherein a virtual environment model within said room is created from said panoramic image.
In an embodiment of the above mentioned method according to the invention, a distance from the view point to the post in the virtual space is corrected under such a condition that said virtual environment model has a rectangular shape surrounded by four walls.
In another embodiment of the method according to the invention, in order to utilize data of the panoramic image information as texture information, said cylindrical body is corrected into a curved surface which is based on said angle of view, the image information of the panoramic image on the thus corrected curved surface is utilized as texture and is pasted as surface information at a corresponding point of the virtual environment model reconstructed from the panoramic image.
According to the invention, a method of creating a virtual environment comprises:
a step of arranging a panoramic image of an inside of an architecture picked-up from a single view point on a cylindrical body in a virtual space such that information about an angle of view of the relevant panoramic image is reflected,
a step of arranging two mutually parallel virtual planes of said architecture in said virtual space such that said two virtual planes are brought into contact with an upper plane and a lower plane, respectively of said cylindrical body;
a step of deriving a radius of the cylindrical body from a circumferencial length of said panoramic image arranged on the circumferencial surface of the cylindrical body;
a step of deriving a height of said panoramic image;
a step of setting markers on the panoramic image, said markers corresponding to points which situates on said two mutually parallel virtual planes at a same horizontal position;
a step of deriving heights of said markers on the panoramic image; and
a step of deriving a distance from a virtual view point in the virtual space to a straight line connecting said points on said two mutually parallel virtual planes at the same horizontal position and a height of said virtual view point from said radius of the cylindrical body, said height of the panoramic image and said heights of the markers on the panoramic image;
wherein a virtual environment model of the inside of said architecture is created from said panoramic image.
According to the invention, a method of creating a virtual environment comprises:
a step of arranging a panoramic image of an inside of an architecture picked-up from a single view point on a cylindrical body in a virtual space such that information about an angle of view of the relevant panoramic image is reflected;
a step of arranging at least one virtual plane within said architecture in said virtual space such that said at least one virtual plane is brought into contact with at least one of an upper plane and a lower plane of said cylindrical body;
a step of deriving a radius, a circumferencial length and a height of the cylindrical body as well as an angle of view at which said panoramic image is picked-up;
a step of setting, on the panoramic image, at least one marker corresponding to a point at which said at least one virtual plane intersects a straight line at right angles;
a step of deriving a height of said at least one marker on the panoramic image; and
a step of deriving a distance from a virtual view point in the virtual space to said straight line which intersects perpendicularly said at least one virtual plane and a height of said view point as well as a height of the inside of said architecture in the virtual space from said virtual view point, said radius of the cylindrical body and said height of said at least one marker in the panoramic image;
wherein a virtual environment model within said architecture is generated on the basis of said panoramic image.
wherein a virtual environment of the inside of said architecture is created on the basis of said panoramic image.
In order to achieve the second object of the invention, a virtual environment creating apparatus comprises:
an image display means for displaying a panoramic image;
a means of setting markers on the panoramic image, said markers corresponding to vertices of at least one post at which the post is brought into contact with a ceiling plane and a floor plane, respectively in a virtual space; and
a means for creating a virtual environment model corresponding to said panoramic image from the panoramic image and positional information of said markers on the panoramic image.
In order to attain the third object of the invention, a computer readable record medium, having a program recorded thereon, wherein said program is to make the computer execute the following procedures for producing a virtual environment from a panoramic image of an inside of a room picked-up from a single view point;
to arrange said panoramic image on a cylindrical body in a virtual space such that information about an angle of view of the relevant panoramic image is reflected and upper and lower planes of said cylindrical body are brought into contact with ceiling and floor planes, respectively of said room;
to derive a circumferencial length, a radius and a height of said cylindrical body;
to derive heights of markers set on the panoramic image, said markers corresponding to vertices of at least one post defining a shape of the virtual space, at said vertices the post being brought into contact with the ceiling plane and floor plane, respectively in the virtual space; and
to derive a distance from a virtual view point in the virtual space to said post and a height of said virtual view point from said radius and height of the cylindrical body and said heights of said markers in the panoramic image and to create the virtual environment model of the inside of the room from said panoramic image.
According to the invention, a computer readable record medium, having a program recorded thereon, wherein said program is to make the computer execute the following procedures for producing a virtual environment from a panoramic image of an inside of a room picked-up from a single view point;
to arrange said panoramic image on a cylindrical body in a virtual space such that information about an angle of view of the relevant panoramic image is reflected and at least one of upper and lower planes of said cylindrical body is brought into contact with at least one of ceiling and floor planes of said room;
to derive a circumferencial length, a radius and a height of said cylindrical body as well as an angle of view with which said panoramic image is picked-up;
to derive heights of markers set on the panoramic image, said markers corresponding to vertices of at least one post, at said vertices the post is brought into contact with the ceiling plane and floor plane, respectively in the virtual space; and
to derive a distance from a virtual view point in the virtual space to said post and a height of said view point from a position of said virtual view point set on the panoramic image, said radius of the cylindrical body and said heights of said markers on the panoramic image and to create the virtual environment of the inside of said room from the panoramic image.
According to the invention, a computer readable record medium, having a program recorded thereon, wherein said program is to make the computer execute the following procedures for producing a virtual environment from a panoramic image of an inside of an architecture picked-up from a single view point;
to arrange said panoramic image on a cylindrical body in a virtual space such that information about an angle of view of the relevant panoramic image is reflected and upper and lower planes of said cylindrical body are brought into contact with two mutually parallel virtual planes within said architecture;
to derive a circumferencial length, a radius and a height of said cylindrical body;
to derive heights of markers set on the panoramic image, said markers corresponding to points which situates on said two mutually parallel virtual planes at the same horizontal position; and
to derive a distance from a virtual view point in the virtual space to a straight line connecting said two points on said two mutually parallel virtual planes and a height of said virtual view point from said radius and height of the cylindrical body and said heights of said markers on the panoramic image and to create the virtual environment model of the inside of the architecture from said panoramic image.
According to the invention, a computer readable record medium, having a program recorded thereon, wherein said program is to make the computer execute the following procedures for producing a virtual environment from a panoramic image of an inside of an architecture picked-up from a single view point;
to arrange said panoramic image on a cylindrical body in a virtual space such that information about an angle of view of the relevant panoramic image is reflected and at least one of upper and lower planes of said cylindrical body is brought into contact with at least one of two mutually parallel virtual planes within said architecture;
to derive a circumferencial length, a radius and a height of said cylindrical body as well as an angle of view with which said panoramic image is picked-up;
to derive heights of at least one marker set on the panoramic image, said at least one marker corresponding to a cross point between said at least one of two mutually parallel virtual planes and a straight line which intersects said virtual plane at right angles in the virtual space; and
to derive a distance from a virtual view point in the virtual space to said straight line and a height of an inside of the architecture from a position of said virtual view point set on the panoramic image, said radius of the cylindrical body and said height of said at least one marker on the panoramic image, and to create the virtual environment model from said panoramic image.
According to the invention, in order to attain said fourth object, a computer data signal embodied in a carrier wave, wherein said computer data signal is constructed by computer readable program codes for producing a virtual environment from a panoramic image of an inside of an architecture picked-up from a single view point comprises:
a computer readable program code for arranging said panoramic image on a cylindrical body in a virtual space such that information about an angle of view of the relevant panoramic image is reflected and arranging two mutually parallel virtual planes in said architecture on said virtual space such that said two virtual planes are brought into contact with an upper plane and a lower plane, respectively of said cylindrical body;
a computer readable program code for deriving a radius, a height and a circumferencial length of said cylindrical body;
a computer readable program code for deriving heights of markers on the panoramic image, said markers being set at positions on the panoramic image corresponding to two points which situate on said two mutually parallel virtual planes at the same horizontal position; and
a computer readable program code for deriving a distance from a virtual view point in the virtual space to a straight line connecting said two points on said two mutually parallel virtual planes at the same horizontal position and a height of said virtual view point from said radius and height of the cylindrical body and said heights of said markers on the panoramic image to create a virtual environment model of the inside of said architecture.
According to the invention, a computer data signal embodied in a carrier wave, where said computer data signal is constructed by computer readable program codes for creating a virtual environment from a panoramic image of an inside of an architecture picked-up from a single view point comprises:
a computer readable program code for arranging said panoramic image on a cylindrical body in a virtual space such that information about an angle of view of the relevant panoramic image is reflected and at least one of upper and lower planes of said cylindrical body is brought into contact with at least one of two mutually parallel virtual planes in said architecture within said virtual space;
a computer readable program code for deriving a circumferencial length, a radius and a height of said cylindrical body as well as an angle of view with which said panoramic image is picked-up;
a computer readable program code for deriving a height of at least one marker-set on the panoramic image, said at least one marker corresponding to a cross point between said at least one of two mutually parallel virtual planes and a straight line which intersects said virtual plane at right angles; and
a computer readable program code for deriving a distance from a virtual view point in the virtual space to said straight line and a height of an inside of the architecture from a position of said virtual view point set on the panoramic image, said radius of the cylindrical body and said height of said at least one marker on the panoramic image to create a virtual environment of the inside of said architecture.